Saul and the Witch of Endor

The support consists of five vertically grained oak planks (22.3, 23.0, 25.8, 26.4 and 25.3 cm), 0.6-0.9 cm thick. The panel was planed down for cradling, which was removed in 1976. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1493. The panel could have been ready for use by 1504, but a date in or after 1518 is more likely. At the top and bottom there are small holes, which may be associated with an earlier framing. The white ground, which is visible at the edges of the painting and through the paint layers, must have been applied in the original frame; there are unpainted edges measuring approx. 0.6-0.8 cm on all sides, but no traces of a barbe. Infrared photography reveals a linear underdrawing in some parts of the painting that was applied with a brush in a wet medium, which is confirmed with infrared reflectography. There may also be a few chalk lines, mainly contours and some inner lines, all of them slightly undulating. There are very few hatchings. Infrared reflectography revealed several alterations. The small satyr with the book may have had pointed ears originally, the goat between the seated witches in the foreground had shorter horns and a slightly different head. The witch with the 'albarello' held a dish in her left hand. The large satyr with the hurdy-gurdy may have been playing a double flute at first, partly because two arms can be seen (fig. b) which were reserved in the background, the lower one of which was executed in flesh tones but then painted out. There are slight modifications to almost all of the underdrawing and reserves for the heads of the large figures. In the architecture, the arched shapes are underdrawn and incised, while the straight lines were drawn with the aid of a ruler. The two cockerels flying above the witch with the albarello are a later addition. The small figures seen through the openings in the ruin (Saul with Samuel, and the battle with the Philistines) were not reserved but painted on the ochre-coloured ground. The larger figures, the architecture and trees were left in reserve. The paint was applied rather smoothly and transparently, with many layers of glazing. There are small 'pentimenti' at the reserves.

Fair. The panel is very thin and thus rather fragile. The paint layer is abraded and damaged along the joins. There is raised paint along the grain and extensive discoloured retouchings along the joins. The varnish is somewhat discoloured.

...; sale, Louis-Maximilien Beauvois (?-1796, Valenciennes), Valenciennes (Pillion), 19 May 1879, no. 1, as Jean-Walter van Assen, fl. 500, to the museum¹¹Copy RKD; NHA, ARM, Kop, inv. 39, pp. 268-70, nos. 19, 23, 27 (31 May 1879); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 161, no. 307 (3 June 1879).

ObjectNumber: SK-A-668

According to the inscription in the banderole at top left, the true subject of this painting is Saul, despite the fact that he is no more than a minor figure in the left middleground. The inscriptions follow the biblical narrative in 1 Samuel 28:3-20, in which Saul, the first king of the people of Israel, becomes fearful on the eve of a battle with the Philistines and goes in disguise to the witch of Endor to discover how the war will turn out. The witch summons up the spirit of the dead priest Samuel, who announces that God has turned away from Saul because of his godlessness, and that as a result David will soon become king in his place. On the far left we see Saul at the head of his men asking the witch’s advice. Through the archway on the right Samuel can be seen sitting on the edge of his tomb, disturbed from his repose of death. Beyond the tomb we see Saul talking with Samuel, and behind them the battle with the Philistines. Saul loses the battle and commits suicide. ‘By disturbing Samuel in his sleep of death he himself lost his life’, is the message on the banderole at top left. Oddly enough, the foreground is taken up with the non-biblical scene of a witches’ sabbath that again features the sorceress of Endor, this time bare to the waist. The witches are surrounded by satyrs and fantastical figures, both on the ground and in the sky.

The story of the witch of Endor was rarely depicted in painting in this period, and never in combination with the world of witchcraft and sorcery as Jacob Cornelisz has done here. His contemporaries Hans Baldung Grien and Albrecht Dürer did publish prints with scenes of witches which helped to popularise the subject.⁴⁴Illustrated in Amsterdam 1986a, pp. 20-21, figs. 20a-20b. One widely read book of spells at this time was De sleutel van Salomo,⁵⁵Carroll-Kremer in Amsterdam 1986a, pp. 133-34. which among other things describes what articles are needed to summon spirits, and some of them can be seen in this painting, such as the prophetic ruin and the candles made from human fat. The book held by the small satyr beside the witch of Endor contains nonsense words which probably refer to spells like those in ‘De sleutel van Salomo’. By combining the biblical story of the witch of Endor with the subjects of witchcraft and sorcery, Jacob Cornelisz uniquely created a moral example of the fate in store for those who break the divine commandment by engaging in witchcraft.⁶⁶Worm 1986, p. 33.

The Witch of Endor is signed on the cartellino at the bottom, just to the left of centre, and has the remarkably precise date of 29 November 1526. It may have something to do with the unusual iconography, but so far no one has been able to come up with a satisfactory explanation for this date. It very probably denotes the day when the painting was finished, for the style and technique of both the underdrawing and the painted surface are in keeping with Jacob Cornelisz’s late work. Unlike those in the early oeuvre, the figures are very lively, have extremely elongated limbs, and are arranged within the picture surface in an almost geometrical way that is totally new for the artist. The painting technique, with the use of glazes and bold pastel tints, is another departure from Jacob Cornelisz’s earlier works, which look as if they were “drawn” in paint with full, more turbid colours.⁷⁷See the entry on SK-A-4706. On top of that, the underdrawing is in a very different style from the assured and often chaotic hand in previous works, being more reminiscent of that in Salome with the Head of John the Baptist of two years earlier (SK-A-1349). Distinctive features of the underdrawing in both paintings include the use of wavy contours and inner lines which appear to have been applied cautiously, almost uncertainly, with the brush in a wet medium (fig. a). There are very few hatchings. In addition, the artist made more changes than usual at a relatively late stage in the painting process. The position of the large satyr’s right arm, for example, was moved twice during painting (fig. b), possibly because he was originally meant to play a double flute instead of the hurdy-gurdy that he now has. The witch clad in red with the albarello was probably holding a dish originally. These alterations may have had something to do with the unusual iconography.

(Daantje Meuwissen)

coll. cat. The Hague 1874, pp. 1-3, no. 1; Bode 1881, pp. 300-01; Scheibler 1882, p. 18; Steinbart 1922, pp. 132, 143, 152; Friedländer XII, 1935, pp. 100, 194, no. 250; Hoogewerff III, 1939, p. 132 (as ‘Andriesnacht’); ENP XII, 1975, pp. 56, 115, no. 250; Caroll-Kremer in Amsterdam 1986a, pp. 133-34, no. 20; Carroll 1987, pp. 90-104, no. 3; Kloek in Van Os ‘et al.’ 2000, pp. 126-27, no. 42

1880, pp. 75-76, no. 60; 1887, p. 31, no. 241; 1903, p. 76, no. 722; 1934, p. 74, no. 722; 1960, p. 75, no. 722; 1976, p. 176, no. A 668; 1992, p. 48, no. A 668